Activate Puke Ray

Posted on Mar 6, 2007

A weapon that makes people vomit… it just sounds too fantastically foul to become a reality (but then again, what about weapons development isn’t disgusting?). According to the Wired blog, it’s under development and is one of the many nonlethal weapon “novelties” described in an invitation to the “07 Navy Opportunity Forum.”

Wired:
They’ve even got a Navy contract to develop the thing. I looked up Invocon’s contract in the Navy’s Small Business Innovative Research database and found this slightly more detailed description of the work:

IVC proposes to investigate the use of beamed RF [radio frequency] energy to excite and interrupt the normal process of human hearing and equilibrium. The focus will be in two areas. (1) Interruption of the mechanical transduction process by which sound and position (relative to gravity) are converted to messages that are processed by the brain. (2) Interruption of the chemical engine which sustains the proper operation of the nerve cells that respond to the mechanical transduction mechanisms referenced in item (1). Interruption of either or both of these processes has been clinically shown to produce complete disorientation and confusion.